In a recent interview with Hot 97 on the "Angie Martinez Show," former
"American Idol" judge
Mariah Carey had some ... choice words for her experience judging the reality competition show.

Honestly, I hated it. Here's what it was -- I was led to believe, I was the first person that signed on. I don't want to say anything, heaven forbid it look like I'm saying something negative, but I thought it was going to be a three-person panel. They gave me a nice dangling monetary moment and I was just like -- OK. Randy Jackson will be there, I've known him forever, he used to play bass for me, this isn't a big deal, it will be nothing. But it wasn't that. It was like hell. It was like going to work every day in hell with Satan. Nah, I'm just playing. It didn't effect me that much, bu I was disappointed.

You know what I loved? I loved the contestants. Some of them that were so good and also good people, you could tell. It was disappointing when they would, for political reasons, not put people through. ... But that's the way it is on that kind of TV.

I like being in a studio better and going on my own tours, etc., so we're going back to that.

There are a couple interesting things coming out of that interview. First off, we always suspected Mariah didn't really know what she was getting into by joining the show and this kind of supports that theory -- they offered her a lot of money and she thought it wasn't "a big deal," it "will be nothing." That was readily apparent in her judging style.

Secondly, to whom do you suppose she's referring when she says it was like working "every day in hell with Satan"? Someone whose last name sounds like menage? Even if she says she's "just playing," you know she's not. Not really.

Finally, we aren't sure we've ever heard a judge from a singing competition talk about the politics behind who they put through and who they cut, so that's interesting. We wish the interviewer had pressed that a little further.